It's All About L.O.V.E.

 "How very fortunate they are to be able 

to tell a story such as theirs." 

CK: 
In addition to reading "Defending A King", I'm also reading this LOVE-ly book, gifted to me by a kind and loving friend. XOXO

Most likely y'all have already read this book, I'm always way behind and too late on everything...

This is the one that is all short stories and poems from fans about their encounters with Michael Jackson and how that changed or affected their lives.

<sniff> How I envy the ones that got to see him!

The one that I read last night totally blew me away - TD, you read this, right?

Two fans from Bavaria Germany spent his birthday period in August 2003 and among many incredible things got to GO INTO NEVERLAND, not once but twice! Their rendition is very detailed and wonderful and I imagined every bit as they described it. Almost choked when I got to the part where they were in MJ's cinema, where short films were playing in rotation, and they got to see a different version of Ghosts than the one commercially released!

AAAAAAGGGHHH

So it does exist. Oh my, I need that. I need it bad.

They met many other fans at Neverland and were among larger groups that were invited in, once at night, once in the daytime, that birthday.

They had numerous sightings of MJ.

They went to LA and attended the 45th Birthday Celebration in their German dirndl dresses (very funny story).

They stayed in Solvang, as we did, and liked the little town very much.

They described so vividly the magic that was Neverland, there on the brink of so much to come.

This book has brought out many tears and also big smiles.

The things that many fans went through to travel to see MJ is just amazing.

I'm so glad they published their stories!

HC: 
I've heard about this book before and it does sound heart warming :) i'll need to read it someday. Is it on amazon.com? I hear ya bout the alternate Ghosts!! Shhhhoooooootttt. That's the only thing about reading it... I bet i'd get awfully jealous while doing so ;)

TD: 
 I do have this book and can ably participate in THIS conversation because I've read it! lol

Last year in the lead up to 25/6, I decided that I would read one story a day and timed it so the last story in the book would be read on 25/6 itself. As it turned out, I was a few days past that day but I really found that by absorbing myself in these amazing stories helped me get through that whole month.

Like you CK, I was astounded at the lengths that some fans went to find and follow Michael wherever he may have been and how they created opportunities for themselves to see him up close and even try and meet him personally. I can’t honestly say that I wasn’t envious towards those who did have that personal encounter but I am far more thankful and grateful that they have published these accounts in a book. Their stories had me gobsmacked, laughing, cheering, crying, smiling and just a wonderfully happy and uplifting feeling deep in my heart. How very fortunate they are to be able to tell a story such as theirs. And how fortunate we are to read about them. You won’t find these stories in the newspaper etc

This is by far one of the best books I have ever read. And not just in relation to Michael. I’m glad I have this on my bookshelf.

There is another book that I have had my eye on for sometime now. I will probably end up buying it because I'm intrigued enough by the blurb. Does anyone here have this one?:

Michael Jackson: We Are the Mirror

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/145676764X/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_3?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

The reviews are all 5 star.

I also see on Amazon that the 2013 MJ calendar is available already. Still keeping up with the Bad theme maybe?:

http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Jackson-2013-Square-12x12/dp/1465001107/ref=pd_ys_sf_s_283155_a1_n_1_p

It is still currently available on Amazon. It's not cheap as far as a paperback goes but it is a thick book and I believe a percentage of the income is donated to charity in Michael's name:

http://www.amazon.com/Its-about-L-O-V-E-Brigitte-Bloemen/dp/383914941X/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346998674&sr=1-5&keywords=its+all+about+love



CK:  
Wow TD - the book that you linked to sounds like quite an experience. It brought tears just reading the reviews. Sounds like an important read. Thank you!

TD:  
 I had the same reaction when I first came across it and feel the same way about the need to read it.

 FS:  
 I too had this wonderful collection of stories gifted to me <*wink* thank you>  - I'm not much of a reader but as soon as I read the first few stories, it was hard to put it down. I disciplined my self to reading a few stories a day, sometimes only 1 so it would last me up to or around 6/25. I looked forward to reading another account of a fan and their Michael Jackson adventure. TD is right, this book will surly make a person who appreciates, honors and loves Michael Jackson laugh, cry, smile and happy. I value my book and every once in a while I'll randomly open it to a page and try to imagine being the blessed person who wrote it. 

Does This Make Any Sense?

Continuing from yesterdays entry and CK's question:

 Does this make any sense?

TB:

It makes absolute sense. He could bludgeon people or the media would have crucified him even further.

 

King of Pop.....profound messages hidden under glorious music....very subversive. People are really just beginning to recognize how subversive it really was.

EB:

Dare I hit send on this? 

 

And to me my dear, that is one of the reasons he was "killed".  He was too powerful for the status quo and they truly feared His waking of the masses.  Just look at the History Tour with all the flags and the words "harmony".  Stay quiet black man, we couldn't destroy you with lies, you got up from our knock out punch, just    don't come back and start that awakening stuff again.  But He did because "they" really could not control Him.  He Himself was his greatest asset worth more than any thing he owned.  Our beautiful liberator knew what he was doing all those years but many people could only see the song and dance.  Yes my dear Theresa he was very subversive but he was being studied and watched by the world controllers.  I only wish he had protected himself better in the end.

 

TB:

I am glad you hit send

 

 

 

From MJ On The Bed to "Escapism"

TB:
We really need to get our blogs going. We are dang good.

CK:

...she says modestly!

LOL

Now as to the definition of "escapism" as MJ used it and Willa interpreted it - I need to go back and catch up on several DWTE posts coz I unfortunately missed that one in the midst of the chaos of my last three months.

I understand what you mean - great art as time & space converging in one singular moment to pop you OUT of your present reality and into - somewhere else.

Yes. Great art does indeed do that - it's transcendent, it reaches part of the brain that isn't really altogether under your control, it can work subtly or BANG slap you full on. It can knock you down like a tornado or seep in gently like summer rain through cracks you didn't even know you had in your consciousness. It takes you away from your known reality. If you're lucky. If you allow it. Though again it isn't always your choice. I think MJ had his finger on the pulse of a type of escapism that he himself experienced through great art and wanted to share with everyone somehow. And man, he had the ammunition to take us away like few others before him. And none after.

I picture him onstage as that convergent point in time and space and energy, where stars and galaxies and atoms and whirlwinds suddenly collide and take form. He was a blinding example of "star seed" personified - that which we all are and were made to feel along with him.

The attachment says it all.  <photo below>

RB:

A picture's worth a thousand, eh? Beautiful being.

Well yes, Willa was saying that by "escapism" MJ meant escaping the bounds of space and time--the shackles that hold us in this version of "reality." Great art makes those borders disappear. And it's indeed "like magic" as MJ would say in his entirely appropriate but childlike way. Suddenly we are one with everything and everyone that ever was. I think I sent you guys NJ's account of the energy at MJ's Bad and Victory concerts she attended--how it all felt like a "religious" experience? Same thing.

On my list to read this summer is an NPR-reviewed book about how "today's world" more and more suppresses right-brain processes and promotes left-brain ones. Author posits that our very humanness resides in the right brain. It's the part that is less concrete, less about measurement and more about integration, synthesis, and intuition. It's the only part that's in the least bit interested in or capable of connecting us to something greater than the sum of a bunch of parts. This book makes me think of MJ as well as what I consider to be really going wrong with the world.

I'm not sure you can experience escaping space and time and connecting with the Universe even momentarily if you're strictly stuck in the left brain

CK:

Sounds like Willa and I - and you & MJ - are all on the same page here about great art and "escapism" - I look forward to reading that particular post. As I do all her posts. I wish I could comment in some meaningful way on the site about what she says - I simply don't feel adequate.

The book you are planning to read sounds fascinating too, RB - I look to your example and hope to inject my daily life with more time to read once I get moved. I want to slow down for a few months before I choose my next creative expression (which hopefully will make me a living!)...

BTW there is nothing I enjoy more than seeing a left-brain person of my acquaintance come up against an experience that does transcend all things concrete, rational and practical - that journey (or struggle depending on level of resistance) is endlessly fascinating and I think that's why I ended up in the arts in the first place. Reality as a concept often has little meaning for me. People talk about reality as if it were the experience itself but too often they are only describing the trappings...

Whoever took that photo deserves an award of some sort - I just love it.

Besides the instant recognition of the body and hair, besides the beauty of his long and expressive open arms, besides the hint you the viewer gets of standing alone on a darkened stage facing a vast sea of faces and eyes all riveted on the same man, under the more profound vastness of space and stars... there is the sense that he glows from within and is actually the source of the light around him rather than the target of many spotlights from out there somewhere... which is just plain satisfying to my soul.

RB:

This picture has been heavily worked over, I think--looks almost like a painting--to good effect, though.

Another one I want as a huge poster!

CK:

Now girrrl - don't go gettin' all nit-picky when I'm waxing poetic here, yano?? Sheesh!

jkjk

If any digital enhancement HAS been added, it still started out as a brilliant photograph.

Serendipity traveled with the tours, I think.

Or more likely MJ created his own serendipity!! LOL